Lent / Easter

Dialogika Resources

Lent / Easter

Movie: The Passion of the Christ

The movie, The Passion of the Christ, directed and produced by Mel Gibson, was released on Ash Wednesday 2004 amid a swirl of well-publicized and promoted controversy. Many institutional and individual members of the CCJR were concerned about the film's portrayal of Jewish characters and the theological implications of its stress on extreme suffering. Below are selected statements and essays that involved CCJR members.

Twenty-five centers or institutes in North America devoted to deepening Christian and Jewish understanding issued this call for widespread educational initiatives.

Ad Hoc Scholars Committee Analysis of the Shooting Script of The Passion (May 2, 2003) In May 2003, a group of four Catholic and three Jewish scholars ­convened by specialists at the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Anti-Defamation League submitted to Mel Gibson a confidential analysis of a shooting script of a film then called The Passion. Their work had been agreed to by Mr. Gibson, though he did not directly provide the script. The group decided to make its report available to the public after the film's opening, Except for some added or dropped scenes, the final version of the film is, for the most part, close or even identical to the script that the group read.

A supplementary statement to the previous item by the four Catholic professors who were part of the Ad Hoc Scholars Group. It contains cautions about using extra-biblical materials, such as the writings of Anna Catherine Emmerich whose writings clearly shaped the composition of the screenplay. It offers three explicit questions to ask in regard to any script's use of New Testament narratives. [June 17, 2003]

A collection of articles on various aspects of dramatizing the death of Jesus and of the Gibson film in particular. Authors include Dennis Hamm, Gordon R. Mork, John T. Pawlikowski, Adele Reinhartz, and Mark Silk..